A simple leaky faucet

One of the problems with our home is that it’s ten years old now. Things are starting to require some maintenance.

Now I’m no handyman but I’m no completely hopeless, so when Manina mentioned the tub faucet leak has been getting worse, I thought I’d take a crack at it.

I pulled the hardware off of the faucet and was doing pretty well. I took a picture of the cartridge that needed replacing and went down to Home Depot to get the new part and hopefully some advice from the pros.

The clerk was pretty knowledgeable, and gave me a few pointers on removing the cartridge.

Feeling confident, I returned to finish the job.

I tugged, I pulled, I heaved with my might, but that darn cartridge wasn’t budging. I kept at it, again and again, and then it snapped. The brass hosel thing just sheared clean off. Now how was I going to get it out?

I looked for some advice online and tried various methods. Unfortunately, none of them worked. So I called the plumber.

The plumber said it was a pretty routine fix, but I had screwed it up so badly that he had to replace the whole valve, which was only possible by cutting a large hole in either the shower or the wall. What started as a 60 dollar job turned into a 230 dollar repair.

Lesson learned: call the expert right from the start.

New Wheels

After fighting reality for more than six months we have succumbed and purchased an eight passenger vehicle.  Both Seth and I tried to convince ourselves that we could make do with two smaller cars (after all they did total more than eight seats together!), but we couldn’t deal with double-buckling kids illegally and four kids in the back seat fighting the whole time so started the vehicle search. We pestered Casey at his dealership on a regular basis but he never seemed to get one that would work for us. We also went to other dealerships, ultimately deciding that the best option was to get a vehicle that was a few years old so that original owner paid for all the depreciation. 🙂 KSL (online ads) seemed to be our best option. Many emails later, we secured ourselves a nice Ford Expedition.

The whole process was a little odd. The guy was selling the car he was leasing because he needed something cheaper. He lives in Pocatello. I wasn’t keen on the idea of driving there just to test drive a vehicle. He agreed to meet halfway and allow us to take the car back home and get it checked by our mechanic. Yes, that’s right. He loaned us his car for four days while we got it all checked out. I think he was pretty confident we would buy it but I personally would never have done it. We also sold our van the same day we picked up his expedition so it worked out really well.

Seth said he would never drive a Ford and here we are. I quite like it actually. Of course we have driven Kia’s for the past 10 years so this feels like a definite upgrade. It is a 2006 Ford Expedition Limited. It is a pearl in color which is why I initially called on it in the first place. I really like the color. It has heated and a/c seat, rear sensors so I don’t hit anything, and my favorite part is the memory seats. With Seth and I being so different in stature it makes it really easy to push a button and get my settings back. Also, I am not sure how we went all this time without a entertainment system in our car. That has made traveling with six kids a cinch!

Other than the gas mileage and car payment we are glad we made the switch. I definitely miss the ease of getting kids into a van – no lifting seats to get in the car. Anyway, for those of you that wave when we go by be sure to watch for us in our new car and not the van!

Schools out for the summer!!

This has been such a fun year for the kids. They had to move to a new school, meet new teachers, and make lots of new friends. Each of them agreed that this has been the best year of all. That being said, they are super excited for summer. The last day of school was only about an hour and a half long but they insisted on going. They rode their bikes and were thrilled to finish off the year!

Our neighborhood has an annual “End of the School Year” party. It was a lot of fun. There was pizza and games galore. They did a water balloon and candy toss with a huge sling shot. Even Drew and Claire came along for the fun. What a great day!


All the kids!


Claire catching candy from the candy toss.


Drew and Isaac (Drew just got out of the pool…hence the lack of shorts)

Highland Dance Festival

Every other year Highland Elementary has a dance festival. It was such a fun little program that required a lot of practice. Jacob danced to “Dancin’ in the Street”, Megan performed to “Rock and Roll Music” by the Beach Boys and Katelyn did a partner dance to “Stuck on You” by Elvis. They all did a great job and had so much fun doing it!

Katelyn’s Graduation

My sweet kindergartner graduated this week. It really is amazing how quickly these little ones grow up. That is probably why I have so many children…just don’t ever want them to get big! The program was cute. They sang songs, recited poems and received their diplomas. I could tell she was a little sad that it was over. That’s how I was when summer arrived as a child. I missed school and couldn’t wait for it to start again. Way to go Katelyn. I am so proud of you!


Katelyn shaking the principle’s hand


Katelyn and her great teacher Mrs. Beck


KK and her daddy!

Bunk bed mystery

It was 4AM and Claire stumbled into our room.

“Drew jumped on my head and woke me up,” she said.

We really weren’t sure what happened, so we helped Claire back to her room. Sure enough, Drew was fast asleep laying sideways across Claire’s pillow. Manina lifted him into the crib, and he didn’t even stir. Strange.

You see, it was Drew’s first night in his “big boy bed”. We had kept telling Drew that once he was finally potty-trained, he could move from the crib to the top bunk of the bunk bed, where Claire occupies the bottom bunk.

When we had put Drew to bed that night, he was his usual rambunctious self — he kept Claire up just chatting away, and even got out of bed a few times. This prompted Manina to remove the ladder from the bunk bed. Drew didn’t like that much, because he couldn’t escape. But this added to the middle of the night mystery? What had happened?

We all went back to sleep, but were still perplexed in the morning. Had Drew climbed down using the window and the wall and then jumped on Claire’s head, but then fallen fast asleep? Didn’t seem likely. Had he sleep-climbed down somehow and curled up like a cat on Claire’s head? No, the climb would have been too rigorous to sleep through it. Had he fallen off, hit the floor, then climbed into Claire’s bed? We doubted it, since he probably would have been hurt or at least startled enough to start crying for his mom.

We were really stumped.

In the morning I went in to further investigate the crime scene. Claire’s head had been assaulted by a slumbering Drew, who was apparently totally unaware of his actions.

Then I saw it. Near the head of Drew’s mattress lay his trusty blankie, which he never sleeps without. The blankie was hanging over the head of the bed. I looked at the top mattress from where Claire was sleeping and saw a sizable gap between the headboard and the first support slat. Mystery solved.

Drew had snuggled up at the head of the bed and the mattress slowly pushed the support slats down toward the foot of the bed, increasing the gap. The gap was finally large enough for Drew to fall through from the top bunk, landing on Claire’s head (and remaining fast asleep). We’re lucky that he didn’t get stuck between the mattress and the headboard, and we’ve since fixed the slats and moved him to the bottom bunk!

Hiking in Moab

We decided it was time for another hiking trip. It has been several years since our last Moab trip, so we decided to go again. Spencer, Rachel and their kids joined us which made the trip even more fun. Together, we rented a condo instead of a hotel and that was a genius idea. We spent about the same amount of money as we would have on a hotel and were able to have a place to cook, rest and play when we weren’t hiking.

The weather forecast wasn’t great but we didn’t have the option of canceling so we went anyway. I am so glad we did. Although cooler than usual, the weather was absolutely perfect when we needed it to be. Strangely, at the end of the first day of hiking we did get a burst of snow which seemed oddly out of place since we had enjoyed fairly sunny skies and had all gotten a little sunburned earlier in the afternoon. Springtime in Utah.

We spent two days in Arches National Park and did several small hikes which led to various arches. We even conquered the hike to Delicate Arch — a 3-mile round trip — which was the highlight of the trip. With seven young kids (we left Ellie with Grandma Jan) we were quite a sight on the trail. Drew and Wyatt did great (and who wouldn’t be while being carted around in backpacks?), but Claire and Lucy threw a few fits and whined a little about having to walk so far. All the older kids proved once again to be great hikers. After the big hike we took the kids to Sand Dune Arch so they could climb around and play in the sand. We are still finding sand in pockets, shoes and other areas!


The whole crew taking a quick snack break


Me, Drew and Megan with Delicate Arch in the background


Seth, Katelyn and Jacob under Delicate Arch


Meg, Jake, Katelyn and Claire


The kids on a rock along the Park Avenue hike


Seth and Spencer atop Sand Dune Arch


Drew & Wyatt unsure of all the sand


Uncle Spencer buried nearly all of Jacob!


Claire and Lucy

Claire and Lucy absolutely loved that they could be together 24/7. Claire rode in Lucy’s car most the time (sorry Spencer). They hiked together, ate together and snuggled and watched movies together. Claire is still looking around for her, wondering why she moved out. 🙂 We really had a great time. Moab is probably my favorite hiking spot and I can’t wait to go back again some day.


This pretty much sums it up! Claire and Lucy had a great time together.

Long overdue

This past weekend I had my first “girl’s weekend” since I have been married. Yes, that means it has been TWELVE years since I have slept away from my kids and my husband (I have been without Seth and without my kids a few times but never both at the same time). It isn’t something I am accustomed to, well, until this weekend.

I went to St. George with my two sister-in-laws and mother-in-law. That may or may not sound appealing to some but please keep in mind that in my case, I really do like my mother-in-law (and other than this post I call her “Mom”) and both of my sister-in-laws that came along are great. I can certainly out-talk any of them but that doesn’t likely come as a surprise to any of you that know me. We gabbed, gabbed, and gabbed some more – no topics off limits (sorry Abby). We laughed about stupid things and laughed so hard we cried about even stupider things!


Why is it when you get together with girls you act about 14?!


Abby showing her inner desire to be a dancer.


Smelling the roses!

I drove most the time which was often quite scary considering how well I don’t know my way around St. George but we survived. We ate out more than I care to think about (never eating at home once during the trip), but the food was quite good every time. We walked through a handful of antique shops on main street. Mom loves to shop for antiques and although I don’t really have any myself, I enjoyed window shopping for them as well. The weather couldn’t have been nicer. We enjoyed 85 degree weather the entire time. I am pretty sure we all came home with at least mild sunburns.

I also convinced the Johnson gals that it was time for their first pedicure. I am not sure they loved them as much as I do but I think they seemed to enjoy it. What is better than having clean, soft feet with a nice vibrant color for summer?! It was funny to watch them laugh from their feet being touched and then cringe from the clipping of the cuticles but overall it was a new, fun experience for them.

We’ve decided this is a must again for next year. Maybe a new place, maybe a day or two longer but definitely a must. A special thanks to my Dad and Kathy for letting us stay at their home. They are back in Alaska for a few months so we basically had a palace to ourselves at no cost to us. It made for a very affordable trip, although I am pretty sure that we all spent at least that much shopping! We also took their cute yellow golf cart for a spin and believe it or not, fit all four of us in it as we drove down to breakfast.


Rachel and Abby shared the bunk beds and I stayed in the other bed in the room. So cozy!

Definitely the highlight of the trip was Nertz (a game similar to Solitaire, except for four people). Okay, not really. I actually completely stunk at the whole game and was so bad they let me make up my own rules for myself. Thanks to Rach, I now know a new game that I will probably never play again, unless forced. Playing games with the Johnson girls isn’t good for the ego. I would be willing to bet that they will win without much contest on any word game. I did win a lengthy game of Trivia Pursuit via the ipod touch but I am certain that was pure luck, and they would likely agree.

Meanwhile back on the home front is Seth and six kids. Surprisingly, things went well, or so he pretends, but I will let him fill you in on that in the next post. I was greeted by excited kids and cute signs on the door. I will say when I arrived home the house was very clean, laundry done, and a real home-cooked dinner cooking in the oven. I am still trying to figure out who he hired. I’ll let you know when I find out.

Ellie’s Stats

This is mostly for me, but anyone who cares to know can read it as well.

Yesterday I took Ellie in for her 4 month checkup (a few weeks late). After our scare a couple weeks ago I was hoping that we would see an increase in her weight and we did! Bulking her up on the extra formula must be helping. My new pediatrician said as long as she is gaining 2 lbs a month he won’t worry.

Height: 23 1/2 (24 percentile)
Weight: 10 lbs 7 oz (<5 percentile)
Head: 41 1/4 (55 percentile)

She gained 1 lb 5 oz in 2 weeks which I consider great! Looks like she is going to be alright after all. 🙂

Happy 4th Birthday Claire Bear!

Today was Claire’s 4th birthday! She was so excited and practically announced it to everyone she spoke with. She woke up to banners and treats and was absolutely thrilled. Seth and I were asleep and at 7:30 am she came running into our room yelling, “Thank you so much! I love you, I love you!”. As tired as I was, I couldn’t help but smile and hug that little girl.

Sunday birthdays are a little hard, but she was so excited when everyone in her primary class sang a song to her and then she got to pick out a present too. Later in the day we did have some relatives over for some princess cake. She also invited her new best little friend in the neighborhood, Ally, over to help her celebrate. When she called Ally I listened to the conversation and she said in the most excited voice ever, “Can Ally come over to my house for some cake? She really must. It is my birthday!”

We love our Claire. She is such a funny girl. Happy birthday sweetheart!


The princess cake I made. I was too lazy to use fondant but I think it turned out okay and was much easier.


Claire and Ally